The document discusses the style of academic writing. It begins by explaining that academic writing has a formal style but is not meant to mimic any particular writer. It then provides guidelines for academic style, including using tentative rather than assertive language, formal vocabulary, and formal grammar structures. The document also lists features of academic writing such as complexity, formality, objectivity, explicitness of relationships between ideas, and responsibility to support claims. Overall, the document provides guidance on developing a formal academic writing style.

1. Academic Writing Style
Abuelgasim Sabah Elsaid Mohammed
English Department, AUR, U of K.

2. Modern academic writing has a formal style. But,
what does 'formal' mean? Sometimes, students
think that a formal style means that they have to
copy their lecturer's writing style or that of the books
and journals that they read. This may result in
writing that is stilted and unclear. Academic writers
develop their style after years of practice and
students will take time to learn this style. In this
workshop, you will be helped with your writing style
if you follow some basic rules.

3. The way we write in academic and scientific
settings differs greatly from the way we write
to a friend or close one. The tone, vocabulary,
and syntax, all change as the occasion
changes.

4. Academic Style Guidelines
Academic essays should be written in a formal,
academic style. This style includes:
1. Employing tentative rather than assertive
language. Do this by:
• using possibly and probably in front
of verbs and noun phrases; e.g. 'This
is possibly caused by...' or 'This is
probably the most important factor.'
• using the modal verbs may and
might; e.g. 'This may be the most
important factor.'
• using appears to and seems to; e.g.
'This appears to be the most
important factor.'
• avoiding always and every, and
replacing them with often and
many/much

5. Academic Style Guidelines
2. Using formal vocabulary e.g. discuss rather than
talk about. One way to do this is by replacing
phrasal verbs with more formal ones.
 go up
 ask for
 come in
 talk about
 go down
 come up with
 come across
 look at
 go up and down
 pin down

6. Academic Style guidelines
3. Using more formal grammar, for
example:
 Use 'There' as a subject; e.g. 'There is a serious
risk of...'
 Use 'It' as a subject; e.g. 'It is very difficult to...'
 Use 'One' as a subject; e.g. 'One may ask
whether...' ('One' is a formal version of 'You'
[plural] in general) .
 Use the passive voice; e.g. 'Many things can be
done in order to...'

7. 3. Using more formal grammar (cont.)
 Everybody must…
 In our daily lives we experience the influence of …
 We simply/just order goods from…
 Let us consider…
 It’s high time we all did the right thing.
 We can’t see and touch the goods.
 When we download songs we cheat their authors of
income.
 We, Chinese, do things our own way.
 I love/ I like/ prefer…
 We face a huge danger of being cheated…
 You may ask…
 Students have their own styles of learning…
 We can do many things…

8. Academic Style guidelines
4. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as you
and we to address the reader.
5. Avoiding short, disconnected sentences .
6. Avoiding the use of rhetorical questions such as
“Did you know that spoken and written language are
very different?”
7. Avoiding the use of contractions such as won’t,
didn’t, we’ll etc.
8. Avoiding the overuse and misuse of certain logical
connectors, especially besides, furthermore and
moreover. Besides is too informal, and both
furthermore and moreover mean that the following
information is more important than the information
before, which is usually bad organisation. Use In
addition or Also instead .

9. 9. Ensuring that grammar is accurate,
that ideas link together smoothly and
that a full range of grammatical
structures is employed, such as
relative clauses.
10. Referencing correctly, in both in-
text references and bibliographical
references.

10. 14 Do’s and Don’ts in writing good
English
Verbs and subjects has to agree.
2. A pronoun must always agree with their reference.
3. Dont omit apostrophes where they belong.
4. Between you and we, it’s necessary to use the right case.
5. Proofread your writing to corect misspelling an erors in
grammer punctuation, ect.
6. Don’t never use double negative.
7. Don’t put in commas, where they don’t belong.
8. It’s preferred to not split infinitives.
9. A word about incomplete sentences.
10. Don’t write run- on sentences put in proper punctuation.
11. Don’t join clauses like Id, but as I say.
12. Correct spelling duz matter.
13. Try not to end a sentence a preposition with.
14. Avoid comma splice, put in the proper punctuation.

11. Features of academic writing
Academic writing in English is linear, which
means it has one central point or theme with
every part contributing to the main line of
argument, without digressions or repetitions.
Its objective is to inform rather than entertain.
As well as this it is in the standard written
form of the language. There are five main
features of academic writing that are often
discussed. Academic writing is to some
extent: complex, formal, objective, explicit,
and responsible. It uses language precisely
and accurately.

12. Features of academic writing
1. Complexity
Written language is relatively more complex than spoken
language. Written language has longer words, it is lexically
denser and it has a more varied vocabulary. It uses more
noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases. Written
texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical
complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more
passives.
2. Formality
Academic writing is relatively formal. In general this means
that in an essay you should avoid colloquial words and
expressions.

13. Features of academic writing
3. Objectivity
Written language is in general objective rather than
personal. It therefore has fewer words that refer to the
writer or the reader. This means that the main emphasis
should be on the information that you want to give and
the arguments you want to make, rather than you. For
that reason, academic writing tends to use nouns (and
adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs).
4. Explicitness
 Academic writing is explicit about the relationships in
the text. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer
in English to make it clear to the reader how the various
parts of the text are related. These connections can be
made explicit by the use of different signaling words.

14. 5. Responsibility
In academic writing you must be responsible for, and
must be able to provide evidence and justification for,
any claims you make. You are also responsible for
demonstrating an understanding of any source texts
you use.

15. Sources
 www.uefap.com
 http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eap/academicstyle.htm